30 Google AdSense Tips

Here’s a compilation of AdSense tips I’ve built up over the years, which has been effective in getting me more CTR and success in getting my revenues up. Also tips on what no to do also with your ads. Hope it will benefit. Let’s start the list

#1 – Don’t put ads on empty pages

It’s better to flesh out the page before you start displaying ads on it, as once you put an ad on a blank page for example during designing a new site, the next time the bot will crawl your site, might take 2-3 weeks and your new pages may only be reflected then.

#2 – Check your keyword density

Fine-tune the page before exposing it to the AdSense crawler. Try this service to check

#3 – Improve your keywords

Get keyword suggestions from Overture Search Inventory and from Google AdWords Sandbox. Get new keywords that can help you improve your ad relevance.

#4 – Keep your website focused on a theme

Use the keyword suggestions to enhance your web pages and to build theme-based content. And also try to get your keywords into the anchor text of your incoming links as much as possible. Don’t forget that Google AdSense is keyword-targeted advertising: Google AdSense bases its advert topics on your websites content, this means that content-rich websites of a popular topic should attract a large amount of ads.

#5 – Write a new page every day

One of the best tips is to add a new page to your web site every day. The more content you have, the more visitors you will get. Put an Adsense unit on each and every content page of your site.

#6 – Choose the right AdSense format

Wider formats are successful because the ads are compact, easy to read and are complementary to the content. The top three AdSense formats are:

1. 336×280 large rectangle
2. 300×250 medium rectangle
3. 160×600 wide skyscraper

Another successful format is the 468×15 horizontal ad links, that can be placed under your navigation bar.

#7 – Color tips

When creating your Google AdSense ads it is recommended to use the color scheme and style of your website so that the ads blend in well. Ads without background color and borders perfom better than ads within borders with background color.

Create a custom AdSense palette:

* border color = background color of your web site
* background color = background color of your web site
* link color = blue, color of your links
* url color = black, #999999
* text color = black, #333333, color of your main content

You can also rotate your color palette: select multiple color palettes that blend with your site to create variety.

#8 – Position tips

Visitors tend to look at the big headlines to see if your page is worth reading. If you get them interested, they will read the text and look for your navigation links.

Place the AdSense ads in a prominent place around the top/left part of your page or under your headlines, where your visitors are most likely to look at.

If you have an article page with a long body of text, the bottom of that article is a good place for AdSense ads because your visitors read the text and then they want more resources.

#9 – Increase the number of ads, but not too much

If you have a lot of text on a page, use multiple AdSense units. You can use up to

- three AdSense units on a page,
- two AdSense search boxes and
- one unit of ad links.

Link units allow the user to refine what they’re interested in. So if they may not be interested in specific ads on your page, they might be interested in a particular topic, and by clicking on a link unit and a link in the link unit, they’ll be able to specify that they’re interested in that specific topic and get a lot more options and variety on the ads that might appear.

AdSense for Search allows visitors to search Google.com or your sites (up to 3 domains). You earn money whenever they click on the ads that come up on the search results. If you click the Open search results in a new browser window checkbox in the AdSense for Search settings, you won’t lose your visitors.

#10 – Preview Google ads

You can find out what ads will be served by Google AdSense if you install Google AdSense Preview Tool, a very simple tool available only for Internet Explorer 6.0. Click to advertiser sites without generating invalid clicks, and easily add their URLs to your URL filter list. Because AdSense uses geo-targeting, Google serves different ads for other countries. Instead of faking your IP or travelling abroad to test your ads, use this AdSense tool to see what ads see your visitors from France, Germany or other countries.

There may be no Google AdSense ads available for your webpage, so Google will display Public Service Ads. You can hide them using alternate colors or images. Make sure you include the image in a simple html file as a link (use target=”_top”). The image size should be the same as the dimension of AdSense units. In the alternate url box, enter the absolute url of the html file.

#12 – Show images above or next to your ads

Placing images above AdSense ads is no longer allowed by program policies. This could be considered encouraging users to click on ads as explained in Google TOS

#13 – Your Google ads should be visible

Make sure your text ads are visible to the surfers in all screen formats. If you put the ads in a table, give sufficient breathing room, i.e. proper cell padding and cell spacing to make the ads stand out from the rest of your content.

#14 – Use AdSense channels

You can categorize the content of your website into channels and then track your performance. This way you can experiment with different types of ads and see which is performing the best. Instead of buying an AdSense tracker, you can enter the most important pages in your site and see how they are doing. Create up to 200 channels for AdSense.

#15 – Don’t ask your friends or visitors to click on your Google ads.

Do not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. Don’t label the Google ads with text other than “sponsored links” or “advertisements.”.

#16 – Don’t click on your own ads

Google is much smarter than you think. You should not reload your pages excessively. If you are testing your website layout with Google adsense, follow some precautions. Or you can use the unofficial Google Adsense Sandbox Tool that is accessible from Firefox, IE and other browsers to see what kind of Google ads will be served based on content (website address URL) or keywords.

#17 – MFA sites

Don’t start a “adsense asbestos” or “home equity loan rates” website merely to make money from accidental clicks (accidence). You will never make money out these “made-for-adsense-only” websites. Instead, write on topics what you are passionate about. Don’t waste your money on high-paying adsense keywords lists.

#18 – For short articles

CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content

#19 – For long articles

CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in middle of the content – visitors read the long content and then they are looking for more resources.

#20 – Use Text Ads instead of Image Ads as users get more options.

If you still want to display image ads, consider ad formats that support image ads – Choose either the 300×250 medium rectangle or the 160×600 wide skyscraper – or both, if you display multiple ad units on a page.

#21 – Google Ads without background color and borders always perform better.

Make the border color and background color same as your page background color.

#22 – Always put ads above the main fold.

Make sure that the ad unit with the highest clickthrough rate is the first instance of the ad code that appears in the HTML. Since the first ad unit is always filled before the rest, you want to make sure that ad unit is located in the best placement on your page.

#23 – Try setting the ad link URL color to a lighter shade.

If your text is black, you may make the adlink as light gray.

#24 – Important first few lines

The first few lines of your content are an important factor for determining what Ads are served on your webpage. That’s the right place to put keywords in bold (strong or &ltb> tags) or header tags (h1, h2, etc).

#25 – Search in new browser

Always select the setting to open Google Adsense search box results in a new browser window, so you won’t lose your visitors. Click the Open search results in a new browser window checkbox and this add target=”google_window” to your form tag.

#26 – Search location

Maximum people think the search box is on the top right corner. So you know where to put it.

#27 – Don’t syndicate full content.

If people can read everything from the newsreader window itself, why would they visit your website where your ads are.

#28 – Change title/content

For low CTR pages, try changing titles or adding more content to get better focused ads

#29 – Block low paying advertisers with Filters.

Why to loose a visitor for 0.01 cents. Use Overture or Google Adwords Keywords tool to discover keywords that are less popular with advertisers.

#30 – Top Queries report

The AdSense for search Top Queries report shows you what your users are looking for, by listing the 25 most common searches conducted through your AdSense for search boxes. Use this report to identify additional topics to add to your site, or to keep track of your most sought-after information. Focus and improve that content.